Microsoft Outlook 2010 may streamline your email communication around the office, but don’t let the most important points of your messages fade away in a sea of plain characters. Format your email with Outlook’s boldface and underline font features. Each make words stand out in a single click.

Go Bold or Go Home

Type the text you want to boldface or underline into the main message box of the Outlook email window. Highlight the words to be formatted. You can boldface and underline an entire message or just parts. Click the “B” button on the Message tab’s ribbon for bold type and the “U” button for underline, and the formatting or both formatting styles are applied. If you click the button or buttons before you begin typing, everything you type from that point on will have the formatting.

Staying in Line

Formatting emails in Outlook 2010 can be an ideal way to make text stand out, such as breaking up a heavy email and drawing your recipient’s eye to specific terms or directives. You may want to underline and boldface references to your company, products, executives’ names or quotes. Keep in mind that formatting may not always transfer over. Your underline and bold text may be lost if the email is viewed in another email client such as Yahoo or Gmail, or read from a mobile device.

About the Author

Fionia LeChat is a technical writer whose major skill sets include the MS Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Publisher), Photoshop, Paint, desktop publishing, design and graphics. LeChat has a Master of Science in technical writing, a Master of Arts in public relations and communications and a Bachelor of Arts in writing/English.